Modifications in Croatian anti-proverbs

The present paper analyses the modifications of Croatian proverbs through the phenomenon of anti-proverbs, which are deliberate proverb modifications aimed at achieving humour, irony, or parody. Research conducted in 2014 and 2018 on a representative Croatian sample of 1,585 respondents collected a corpus of 6,184 modified Croatian proverbs, of which only 86 are considered anti-proverbs. The paper thus identifies the most common types of modifications from minimal changes to complete transformations of meaning. Croatian anti-proverbs arise through wordplay, rhyme, substitution of proverb parts, and mixing of various language codes, with many variants found in Croatian internet corpora, confirming their relevance and notable usage. Qualitative analysis shows that creative adaptations of proverbs not only enable speakers to express personal viewpoints and humour, but also reflect contemporary communicative and social dynamics. The paper provides an overview of paremiological research methodology and presents a catalogue of the most frequent modifications in Croatian anti-proverbs as an introduction to further corpus-based studies of Croatian proverbial heritage.